1.2.3 The 72 Types of Entities
“That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above, and that which is Above corresponds to that which is Below, to accomplish the miracle of the One Thing.”
In this chapter, we explore the fundamental building blocks of conditioned reality — the 72 distinct entities that form the basis of all experience. We’ll examine how consciousness, mental factors, and material elements combine to create our perceived reality, while understanding how this knowledge serves as a bridge toward liberation. This systematic breakdown of existence provides the alchemist with a practical framework for understanding the nature of conditioning and its transcendence.
An entity is a phenomenon with its own intrinsic nature — e.g. tangibility, a resistance to any attempt to put two material objects in the same place and time, is not dependent on any other single factor for its ongoing manifestation. Delimiting space is a mental dharma that creates the illusion of space between different objects. This space is a mental projection and important for conscious processing yet it doesn’t have intrinsic nature.
These 72 types are the absolute range of our palette that we need to create our model of conditioned reality. Remember, we are not aiming to create an exhaustive model of reality — just one that will grant us the tools to escape conditionality.
To help with getting this stuff into memory, we’ll build on our previous model.
Normal, everyday experience involves Apparent Reality — this is the world of things, beings, self and ideas about this. The alchemist learns to abandon this reality in search of a deeper, more truthful one. The reality the alchemist looks for is inaccessible from where they start, so initially they must build a bridge from which they then can access their true goal.
This bridge is a mental model or map of reality that whilst no different really from any other deluded ideas about life, i.e., it’s made of the same stuff, this model in particular is tailored to permit a breakthrough to what is called The Unconditioned or Nirvāṇa — the end of suffering. It is impossible to understand how or even if this is possible initially, and this is why faith is necessary.
Our previous model therefore explored this underlying reality based on causes and conditions — conditioned reality.
Conditioned reality is made of three types of stuff: physical matter or rūpa, and mind, nāma, made of consciousness and the mental factors that condition this consciousness.
Nirvāṇa itself is considered an entity with intrinsic nature, and when added to the 71 entities of conditioned reality make up our 72.
So, Conditioned reality is made of 71 distinct entities:
- Consciousness, which in its most basic form is called the ‘citta’
- 52 mental factors
- 18 types of matter
And that’s all. We will explore each of these in some depth, but for now, it’s not hard to remember that all we have is consciousness, 52 supporting mental factors and 18 types of physical phenomena. Add in Nirvāṇa and that is 72.
In the next chapter we will explore the different types of consciousness, but for this part, consciousness is considered a single entity.
The 52 mental factors are factors that always accompany the citta (point instance of awareness). Consciousness always must have an object, which can be a sensory object like a visual object, a sound, a taste, etc., or it can take mental phenomena and past cittas as objects. At this level, the level of the citta, consciousness only has a single function, where many citta operating in sequence are needed to run mental processing.
Every citta always has at least seven mental factors, which are called cetasika, which arise and perish with it. These mental factors are called the universals and they are essential in stabilising the citta and allowing it to work. Other mental factors are additionally present and affect the nature of consciousness, sometimes unpleasantly, other times pleasantly. In our exploration of conditioned reality we will cover all 52 mental factors and how they shape awareness.
Although the Abhidhamma delineates 28 distinct types of matter, 10 of these categories lack intrinsic nature. Space is a mental quality that imparts separateness; it requires the presence of other qualities to exist. We will explore matter in greater depth, but at this stage, the most important thing to grasp is that all categories of matter depend on the four great essentials (earth, air, fire and water) as bases.
The 18 material elements are therefore:
- 4 great essentials (earth, air, fire and water)
- 5 material bases (special sensitive matter such as the retina, cochlea, etc., that interacts with a sense object and creates, if conditions are right, sensory awareness)
- 4 sense objects (qualities of matter that impinge on sensitive matter such as colour in a visual object, taste in an olfactory object, etc.) — note, touch is represented by three of the great essentials — earth, air, fire
- 1 heart base — an electromagnetic vortex associated with a current of iron-rich blood — the heart base is the physical base for the mind
- 2 physical sex bases — These are the polarities of gender, note there are two, not a single polarity — this means the qualities of masculinity and femininity can vary in expressional intensity
- 1 life faculty — equivalent to prāṇa
- 1 nutritional factor or oja
At this stage don’t concern yourself too much trying to understand what these terms mean. We will revisit them all.
So, that’s it. 72 entities with intrinsic existence build everything. 71 of these qualities build our Matrix of Conditional Reality, and one entity is the goal of the alchemist, Nirvāṇa or liberation from Conditional Reality and therefore suffering.
“Number is the ruler of forms and ideas, and the cause of gods and daemons.”